Entrepreneur, 36, aims to triple Chevrolet sales

This story by Plain Dealer reporoter Troy Flint originally ran in The Plain Dealer on Sept. 4, 1999.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- In the movie "Tommy Boy," starring the late comedian Chris Farley, Tommy Callahan returns home to Ohio to help run his father's automotive parts business.

Similarly, Mark Sims, Farley's housemate at Marquette University, returned home to Ohio to help his father run an automobile dealership.

Now, after 11 years at Andy Buick in Willoughby, Sims has acquired a dealership of his own. Last month, the 36-year-old entrepreneur purchased Joe O'Brien Chevrolet Co. in Lyndhurst, a dealership he renamed Andy Chevrolet.

Sims is aiming to give the dealership a more "modern" feel by renovating the facilities and giving technology an increased role. He recently hired an employee to build and maintain a company Web site, which, among other things, will offer digital pictures of the dealership's inventory.

It's all part of an effort to triple sales - to more than 2,500 vehicles - in his first year at the helm of the dealership.

Last year, when Sims was general manager at Andy Buick in Willoughby, the dealership sold 1,200 cars, roughly 400 more than the dealership he purchased on July 3. That is a statistic he is determined to change.

"You should sell four times as many Chevys [as Buicks]," Sims argued. "I had a guy call yesterday and says he wants to buy six [Chevys] from us - that never happened at Buick. I guess they're cheaper by the dozen here."

Unlike the bumbling Tommy Boy of cinematic fame, Sims took quickly to the car business. His secret, he says, has been treating car dealing as "a people business."

Sitting behind a desk littered with yellow legal pads and a stress doll modeled after the character Kyle from the "South Park" television show, the boyish-looking Sims moves the conversation easily from sports to movies, to Teletubbies, to his love of horses.

Not surprisingly, Sims considers his communication skills his greatest asset.

"I have great fun selling cars, I love chatting with and learning about people," Sims said. "This business is a lot easier than the perception [of it]. As long as you take care of your customers, you don't have to worry about the business."

Initially, Sims was reluctant to try his hand in the car business, but crime drove him to it.

When Sims was a student at Marquette, thieves broke into the off-campus house he shared in downtown Milwaukee with Farley and 10 other undergrads. After returning to find the place stripped bare, Sims called home to Gates Mills to ask for some money. He was greeted with a firm no from his parents, who reminded him that they hadn't approved of his living situation in the first place.

"I didn't have a job at the time, and they wouldn't send a check," Sims recalled. "So I went to work for a Buick-Pontiac dealership in Milwaukee."

That experience didn't completely sell Sims on auto dealing. When he finished at Marquette, he made preparations to move to Chicago and work at the Board of Trade. But his father, Andy Sims, persuaded him to move back to Ohio and give the auto business a one-year trial.

To sweeten the deal, the elder Sims - who already owned Andy Sims Buick in Broadview Heights - purchased a second Buick dealership from Pat O'Neill, father to one of Mark's college roommates.

The Willoughby dealership was renamed Andy Buick, and the younger Sims worked there for 11 years, first as a sales person, then as general manager and partner.

"It was a deal I couldn't pass up," Sims said.

The dealership was losing money when his father purchased it, but the two quickly turned it into a profitable business.

Mark Sims said the catalyst for the turnaround was the effort he took to build relationships with the customers.

He's sure the same approach will succeed at his new operation - so sure that he sold most of his Chicago real estate investments and the quarter horses his family bred for show in order to finance the purchase of Jim O'Brien Chevrolet.

Now, to put the finishing touches on his first solo venture as owner of a car dealership, Sims is expanding the showroom, updating the service area and generally trying to make the dealership "more friendly".

He's also giving his son an even earlier entrance to the business than the one he enjoyed.

Sims' wife, Patti, will be featured in the commercials for the new dealership, but their 1-year old son, Brendan, has already made his television debut.

"My son's in the commercials, too," Sims said with a smile. "There's one with me holding him up that says `My Dad's really dealing.'

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